The Crypts of Eden

CHAPTER NINE

Alyssa Moore barely left her tent, choosing instead to remain within its hot confines as the desert sun blazed overhead. There were reliefs to be catalogued and studied, pillars and foundations to be examined, but no one denied her the right to mourn the loss of her father. Everyone at the site grieved by missing the man who was gentle and kind, a man who was congenial and never raised his voice or levied a curse in anger, a person who never failed to cast a smile, regardless of the pressures he was under.

And as much as Alyssa followed in his shadow, she knew she was the polar opposite to what he was. She was sometimes impatient, not with others but with herself, always expecting perfection with everything she did, always trying to make her father proud when she knew that he was already proud. She wanted to be more, always going above and beyond, even when she knew she could reach no further. And whereas he was always politically correct and grounded, she was sometimes blunt and fiery with an acid tongue. But they made a great pair, their opposites creating a wonderful balance.

As she sat there, she watched her father on the screen of the video phone as he was leaving for Eden. He was smiling and animated, speaking at the lens of the phone with childlike excitement. It was so good to see him like this, she thought. To see him loving life and what he did to the very end. How many people, she asked herself, truly loved what they did?

Closing the lid of the phone and having every intention of transferring the video to a disc, she took stock of her surroundings. It looked as if a whirlwind had rushed through and cast everything about. Then she realized that she was the whirlwind, venting in a way of catharsis. As the day went on and the heat inside the tent became intolerable, she peeled back the flap and began to reassemble her life. She started by cleaning up the mess and setting papers and forms and photos into orderly fashion, and then rearranged her desk so that things made sense. In her way, she was trying to accept things as they were by moving on.

“I saw the tent flap up,” said Noah. “So I took it as an invitation.”

She turned and smiled. “You’re always welcome, Noah. You know that.”

It was good for him to see her smile again, even if it was a false one. He looked around and made a face as if his surroundings met his approval. “Very nice,” he said. “It’s a far cry from yesterday.” He then looked at her with a paternal gaze. “I didn’t mean that to sound poorly. I just meant—”

She cut him off by raising her hand, her palm toward him. “I know what you meant,” she told him. “I just thought it was time to move on.” She then opened her arms to indicate the inside of the tent. “So I thought I’d start here.”

“Very good, my dear.”

“Noah?”

“Yes, Ms. Alyssa.”

She always hated it when he called her Ms. She could remember bouncing off his knee as a little girl, always closer to him than she was with her own uncles. He could at least address her without the formality. “Noah, it’s just Alyssa,” she stated. “We went over this.”

He smiled. “I so like to rile you,” he said. He stepped further into the tent. “It’s good to see you back to your old self again.”

She raised a cautious finger. “I’m not there yet,” she said. “It’s still hard to let go.”

His smile tapered off. “Yes, of course. I only meant that it’s good to see you moving on.”

“That I am,” she said, moving to her desk.

From Noah’s vantage point, he could not see what she was doing but he thought she was gathering documents of some kind and putting them in their proper place. “Ms. Aly—” He caught himself. “Alyssa?”

The corner of her lip lifted into a smile. “Now you’re getting it,” she told him.

“I need to know,” he began. “Are you ready enough?”

She looked at him straight on. “To take over for my father, you mean?”

He nodded his head, looking sheepish. “Yes.”

“Noah… I’m always going to feel emptiness,” she said. “My father was everything to me. You know that. But I know that I have to move on, as well. So I need to gather my father’s records and schedule a plan. Are you up for that?”

“Of course, my dear. But perhaps I can help.”

“Noah, you’ve been by my father’s side for more than thirty years. I need you by my side too. I need your skills of interpretation.”

Noah appeared stoic. “We will bring honor to your father’s legacy,” he said. “This discovery belongs to him.”

“I agree.”

He laid a few sheets of paperwork on her desk.

“What’s this?”

“Copies of notes from your father’s journal,” he answered. “They’re entries regarding his excursion into Eden.”

She picked them up as if they were as fragile as old parchment. “Where did you get these?”

He swallowed. “It appears that they were in the possession of Mr. Montario.”

“And he didn’t give them to me?”

“It appears that he wanted your father’s secrets to remain secrets. Perhaps, Alyssa, Mr. Montario was afraid that you would decipher the pages and determine the coordinates to Eden. In his own way, by keeping your father’s journal, perhaps he was trying to protect you.”

She held up the encrypted sheets of paper. “And how did you get this?” she asked him.

“It was with Mr. Montario’s belongings in New York, which were discovered soon after his accident. Your father’s property was then forwarded to me. So now I’m forwarding it to you.”

She examined the pages, noting the archaic forms of her father’s writing. The forms were a scramble of different languages and symbols. “Thank you,” she finally told him.

“I believe everything about Eden is there, including the coordinates. Knowing your father as I do, he would not neglect to write everything down for future reference.”

She shook the papers. “They’ll be in here,” she replied.

That’s what he wanted to hear. “Shall we prepare ourselves then?”

“For?”

“To seek out Eden and build on your father’s legacy.”

She looked around the tent, at the documents on her desk and the photos. “I need to sum up my reports regarding the carved bas-reliefs,” she told him. Not only was it her father’s belief that the carvings of the creatures upon the Göbekli Tepe pillars had been indigenous life supported by rich fauna that no longer existed, it was also in direct correlation with his studies that this area was once a garden-like environment, suggesting that Eden may have existed in this part of the world before it had faded to a desert.

“And there are other matters of preparation,” Noah said finally. “Not only will we have to gather sufficient amounts of lighting and gear but, given the plausibility of Mr. Montario’s statement, there is the matter of protection.”

“You mean armed protection?”

“It’s a simple matter of prudence,” he said.

“Noah, I’ve never touched a gun in my life.”

“They scare me to death as well,” he said. “But in this case, I believe it would serve to better our chances of survival. Wouldn’t you agree?”

She gave him a nonplussed look. “Noah, this is a high-priority expedition that has to be kept close to the vest. We can’t afford to let others to know the whereabouts of Eden, because it only heightens the probability that they may appropriate the region and compromise the site. This was my father’s biggest fear, you know that.”

“Do you see another way, then?” he asked patiently. “Please keep in mind that an entire team has been terminated by whatever resides within the temple. We will not be alone. And without protection, we may not stand a chance.”

Alyssa knew that he was right. “We need to keep this as covert as possible.”

“I understand.”

“So what do you suggest?”

“I will employ a team,” he said. “And have them here within a day.”

She cocked her head questioningly. “How would you know people like that?”

“In my walk of life,” he said, smiling his paternal smile she had seen so many times over the years, “you have to be ready for all contingencies. They will not need to know the location until we arrive there. I believe that will ease your concern of possible appropriation on their part should we keep them in the dark, yes?”

“They’re to understand, Noah, that I’m the expedition lead. Not their commander.”

“If they’re paid accordingly, then I see no problems.”

Still, she was on edge. She knew that getting the proper licensing in foreign countries meant you sometimes had to grease a few political palms. But this was something different. She’d be paying mercenaries with funds from the AIAA coffer. Or so she thought.

“All right,” she finally said. “Do what you have to do, Noah.”

“Of course, my dear.”

“I’ll assemble a team for the expedition,” she added. “People of my choosing.”

“And I’ll gather the goods and make the preparations. We should be ready to go in two days, yes?”

“Two days,” she confirmed.

Noah nodded. But before he turned to leave, he spoke to her once more. “A lesson,” he suggested, “in practicality.”

She loved this. It was always something her father did to develop deductive reasoning. It was a learning tool. “I’m ready.”

Noah raised a finger, using it the same way a maestro would direct his players with a baton. “A man is asked to perform a task,” he began. “He is told by the administrator to sit in a bathtub filled with water. He is then given three items: a spoon, a teacup, and a bucket, and is told to empty the bathtub with the least amount of effort. What should he do?”

Her smile flourished. Most people would answer “use the bucket,” since it’s bigger than the spoon and teacup. But the answer was simpler. “The least amount of effort to empty the tub,” she said, “would be to pull the plug.” In other words, genius was always in simplicity.

“Very good,” he told her. “I’ll catch up with you later, my dear.”

“Bye, Noah.”

After he left, her mind drifted to thoughts that she was about to follow in her father’s footsteps. On the desk sat a small photo of the two of them, smiling. It was a recent picture of the day they arrived together at the Göbekli Tepe, taken no more than three weeks ago.

How quickly, she thought, someone you love, someone so close to you, can be here one moment and gone the next. She traced the tip of her finger lovingly over the image of her father, missing him deeply, and then she allowed a single tear to slip from the corner of her eye.

Collecting herself, she turned to the sheets that Noah gave her, and began to read.